The Happy Project

Mike Donoghue is a member of a multinational information technology corporation where he collaborates on the communications guidelines and customer relationship strategies affecting the interactions with internal and external clients. He has analyzed, defined, designed and overseen processes for various engagements including product usability and customer satisfaction, best practice enterprise standardization, relationship/branding structures, and distribution effectiveness and direction. He has also established corporate library solutions to provide frameworks for sales, marketing, training, and support divisions.

What is the health of your project? Are things running smoothly? Are the activities and components well-organized and easy to access for status? Does it look like you will make it to the finish line without any hitches? If so, it sounds like the operation is a success and you should be happy.

But should you be happy?

You look at your project calendar and scheduled events--everything appears to be on track. But just what do your project management abilities have to do with your own sense of contentment? In some ways, projects reflect on how we want to affect the world around us, the feeling that we can make a change, make a difference and take charge of a situation.

Having this sensation of control can:

Remove those “I am a victim” emotions

Take away sadness when feeling confused

Keep us in a non-deviating destination perspective

Empower us to stay accountable to our promises

Direct our energies and thereby improve our odds of accomplishment

Generate stronger feelings of self-worth

Instill confidence in ourselves and provide us with greater opportunities for satisfaction

While having total control of our 24x7 worlds is impossible, working toward having better control can help us realize we have the power to affect outcomes and create more good situations than bad.